Public admission · 11 March 2026
The impact studies and others (…) are those required by law and they will be carried out.
The responsible member of the Government acknowledges, in an official statement, that the legally mandatory studies had not yet been carried out at the moment the project's location was made public.
Who we are
The “No to the Firing Range” platform is a civic platform of the Alto Alentejo. It brings together farmers, business owners, associations, citizens and professionals in common opposition to the military firing range announced by the Government on 11 March 2026.
We defend the integrity of the montado (cork and holm oak woodland), the Natura 2000 network (Cabeção SAC PTCON0029 and Monforte SPA PTZPE0051), the Alter do Chão Important Bird Area (IBA PT017) and the Alter Real Royal Stud (Coudelaria de Alter Real), founded in 1748, a central institution of Portuguese Equestrian Art, inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on 3 December 2024. We defend the livelihoods of more than fifty family farms and of the 58 to 81 distinct farmers directly affected by the planned area.
We demand that the studies required by law be carried out before the decision and not after it. We are not against national defence. We are against this siting decision, taken with no prior technical assessment and in clear contradiction with the State's own acts.
The case in three moments
The institutional summary of the case, with the three moments that structure the platform's position. The full sequence is substantiated in the arguments dossier.
On 11 March 2026, the Minister of Defence announced that the Air Force firing range would leave Alcochete (to make way for the new airport) and move to Alter do Chão. He announced it with no prior studies, no environmental impact assessment, no public consultation, without disclosing the cost, and without mentioning that a high-pressure gas pipeline runs through the middle of the area.
The person who announced it admitted there were no studies. The same Government had approved, 28 days before the announcement, the decree protecting the chosen area. It did not consult REN about the pipeline, did not consult the population, and published no study comparing Alter with other locations. This constitutes a breach of procedure, of the constitutional principles of participation, and of the binding European framework of prior assessment.
The Air Force has identified Mértola and Serpa as the best technical option since 2007. NATO has offered Bardenas Reales, in Spain, since 1982, with 80 percent of its capacity available, at between €5 and €20 million a year. The Government is obliged to assess these alternatives in an Environmental Impact Assessment. First the study. Then the decision.
The case in figures
Data consolidated from official sources and civic records. Each figure points to a verifiable documentary source. Full list, with sources, on a dedicated page.
The arguments
Each argument rests on legislation, on a direct documentary source and on a verifiable technical opinion. The full dossier develops each one in its entirety, and the June 2026 documentary update adds sixteen new vectors.
The announcement came before the studies. The Minister himself admits it publicly.
Read argumentDecree-Law 35/2026 reinforces protection. Twenty-eight days later, the same area is militarised.
Read argumentThe regulation, approved unanimously, prohibits new construction on the affected land category.
Read argumentStud founded in 1748. Portuguese Equestrian Art inscribed by UNESCO in 2024.
Read argumentImmediate military population increase with no social impact study.
Read argumentExpropriation procedure prepared by Council of Ministers Resolution 111/2025. Decision before the hearing.
Read argumentAlter do Chão IBA. Critical habitat for steppe birds in an unfavourable conservation status.
Read argumentCase status
Public Petition PT130367 has gathered 2,446 signatures and crossed the legal threshold of one thousand that requires publication in the Journal of the Assembly of the Republic and a hearing of the petitioners in committee. Four parliamentary groups have tabled scrutiny initiatives: Bloco de Esquerda on 18 March, Partido Socialista on 18 March and 25 April, Partido Comunista Português on 30 March and 2 April, Chega on 29 April. The Mayor publicly reversed his initial position and, on 1 May, declared he was awaiting the studies.
The Air Force's preliminary studies have not yet been published. The project's official cartography is not public, and the maps circulating among the farmers are, reportedly, the only material the Municipality has had access to. The Alter Real Royal Stud has issued no public position on the case. The Portuguese Environment Agency has no record of an open procedure on the participa.pt portal.
On 9 June 2026 a documentary update was consolidated (Chapter X, sixteen new vectors), with cross-referenced data from IFAP, REN, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the technical contribution of the petition's first signatory.
Frequently asked questions
Answers to the most common questions about the case. The full list includes rebuttals to the typical arguments raised in favour of the project.
The accusation of parochial opposition, or of defending purely local interests, ignores a verifiable fact: there are concrete technical alternatives that were never assessed. Bardenas Reales, in Spain, has been open to NATO allies since 1982, with 80 percent of its capacity available, at €5 to 20 million a year. Mértola was the Air Force's technical choice from 2007. None of these alternatives was publicly reassessed before the announcement. The territory of Alter do Chão has the same value as any other territory in the country; the difference is that no one asked its people whether they accepted the sacrifice.
No. What is at stake is the way this decision was made. Those who take national defence seriously do planning, studies and assessment of alternatives, not announcements at a press conference before any technical assessment. The Portuguese Air Force itself identified Mértola as the best technical option in 2007. Another location was chosen with no publicly disclosed criterion. Allowing national defence to be administered without criteria harms defence itself.
The monetary compensation provided for in the Expropriation Code pays for the land, not for the farming activity built on top of it. It does not buy a new profession for someone who loses theirs. It is not fifty properties at stake: it is fifty active farms, with jobs, value chains, generations of knowledge and montados with centuries-old cork oaks protected by national law. Paying for the land does not restore that. Moreover, the expropriation of these farms contradicts the mayor's public assurance that the area would be State land.
The Campo Maior–Leiria gas pipeline runs 11.8 kilometres inside the planned area, at an operating pressure of 85 bar. It is Portugal's main natural gas entry point. The Regulation of the National Gas Transmission Network (Order 806-C/2022, DGEG) imposes an obligation to contact REN before any project nearby, a minimum distance of 75 metres and prior authorisation for any work. Rerouting it costs between €85 and 215 million and takes between five and eight years. Firing live rounds over a pipeline at 85 bar without REN's authorisation would be, strictly speaking, illegal.